One poster wrote:

i read a piece somewhere that suggested there should be just a few ministry focused artists

Mark responded:

What is ministry?

To whom is it directed?

How many nonChristians listen to Christian bands that "minister"?

Why do nonChristians listen to artists like U2 and Bob Dylan etc?

Answer these questions are you've got part of the solution to the problem.

The church should support all the arts (not financially but with encouragement) regardless of whether or not any particuilar work of art is deemed worthy as "propagnda" to convert people and bring them into church (based on how many times you mention Jesus). It doesn't. The church usually only supports propaganda that it can control. Propaganda is not art. Art is not propaganda.

I don't want to be supported financially by a church because the church then dictates what you can say in your art and how you can say it. While teaching in Christian Schools they likewise thought that they controlled you every minute of your life ... even outside school! Church officials have tried to dictate what artists do with their art but the best artists have always declined to obey such stupid orders. (See my past posts on Michelangelo, Bach, Van Gogh, Erasmus, Rabelais, Swift etc ... all Christians)

The artist has to be free to create whether the church likes that creation or not. The church would be better of financially supporting the poor than spending it financing any artist. Having said that, the church should support all artists through encouragement. This includes those starting out and their first awkwards steps. No-one's art is perfect and the quality varies between each work of art an artist does. There are pieces that Michelangelo threw away. Eric Clapton had to learn guitar sometime. Performers all have stage fright ... some cope better than others. John Lennon used to throw up before his concerts. Encouragement can be done within a Christian community ... and it costs nothing. I'm reading Bob Dylan's biography at the moment. He was influenced by a lot of little people who never recorded anything.

Every artist puts a thread in the tapestry that is Art.

All artists work in Art. Art is not bordered by the Christian vs secular. Arbitrary divisions do not stop comparisons or borrowing. When Larry Norman started out in the 60s he used secular musicians because the Christian ones weren't up to scratch. Most Christian artists listen to and borrow from the best secular musicians. Bands like Petra are notorious for pinching secular music and adding their own words ... and then claiming that the music is theirs! Although the quality of musicianship has improved most Christians musicians have not yet learnt the art of writing decent lyrics. (Compare to the secular writers of the 60s like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Lennon & McCartney.)

The Christian artist starts with trying to produce a good work of art. The subject matter is not primary and above all other considerations. What matters is a suitable wedding of content and appropriate form done to the best technical skill.

My wife and I have been talking about three of my recent pieces - "Goodbye", "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "Wonderfiul Feeling" (She's my best critic.)

Who are they written for? ME!!! ... secondarily some are for my wife ( the love songs). It is an expression of who I am. If they "minister' or help someone, good, but it isn't my aim. I have attempted to write them to capture a moment and to be different from anything else I've written ... and to improve with each song. "Goodbye" is a heavy rock, full on guitar piece with naughty words about my experience in church. It drips with venom ... and is my wife's favourite piece. I can see why. It's catchy, in a standard format and easily accessible. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" starts as a synthesiser dominated dirge with wailing and screaming and tolling bells .... ends in a bright optimistic enthusiastic orchestral fanfare of resurrection. (No guitar) It details my grieving at the loss of my parents and brother ... and my hope for their well being. It is about life and death. "Wonderfiul Feeling" is a brighty cheery piece about enjoying life. Reminds me of the Pretenders. A minimalist guitars-bass-drums happy happy joy joy piece. All three mention God in some form as God is central to my life ...and in God I live and move and have my being ... but not all mention God directly by name.

So ....

Art is not ministry ... but good art does minister to people. Make good art!

Church is about ministry and therefore should not use art as propaganda. Propaganda does not minister.

Art is not a good vehicle for evangelisation. It may suggest and mention but in the end it is individual person to individual person or individual person to God that is most effective. U2 has said much the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I can't change the world but I can change the world in me" - Rejoice

"Taste is the enemy of art" - ZooTV screens

"People keep asking what Popmart is all about. Well...I don't know!" - Bono, Popmart Toronto, 10/27/97

"I suppose ultimately I'm interested in music. I'm a musician. I'm not a gunslinger. That's the difference between what I do and what a lot of guitar heroes do." Edge on his own inimitable laid back style.

"Advertising and art are getting all mixed up. I think some of the most exciting pieces of TV are the commercials." Edge on ZooTV's inspiration, 1992

"Every album is difficult. If it was easy, we'd make one a month." Edge on the problems of making an album, 2000.

"We make music you can have sex to" - Bono

"When you sing, you make people vulnerable to change in their lives. You make yourself vulnerable to change in your life. But in the end, you've got to become the change you want to see in the world." - Bono

"Sing the melody line you hear in your own head, remember, you don't owe anybody any explanations, you don't owe your parents any explanations, you don't owe your professors any explanations. You know I used to think the future was solid or fixed, something you inherited like an old building that you move into when the previous generation moves out or gets chased out. But it's not. The future is not fixed, it's fluid. You can build your own building, or hut or condo, whatever;" - Bono

"Yes, I sometimes fail, but atleast I'm willing to experiment." - Bono

"One of the greatest contradictions of rock 'n' roll is that it's very personal, private music made on a huge public address system." - Bono

"If I am close to the music, and you are close to the music, we are close to each other." - Bono

"The truth is when that singer is saying something that comes from right down within him, and it affects you right down within you. That's when you start talking about great music, as distinct from nice music." - Bono

AND THE BEST AT THE END ......

"I love the bit when Christ asked for his greatest hits and he says, 'OK, love God, and love your neighbours as yourself.' Christianity is not complicated, that's what it is." - Bono